History of Macoupin County, Illinois, Part 53

Author: Brink, McDonough & Co.
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 440

USA > Illinois > Macoupin County > History of Macoupin County, Illinois > Part 53

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The breaking out of the war of the Rebellion in 1861, found Col. Miles ready to respond to his country's call for assistance. On the 10th of August, 1861, he enlisted in the 27th Illinois regiment as Captain of Co. F. He was mustered in at Camp Butler, and after two or three days' stay at Jackson- ville, his regiment was moved to Cairo. The first battle in which he took part was that of Belmont, Missouri. The 27th Illinois was the first regi- ment to enter Columbus, Kentucky, after its evacuation by the rebels, and the first to take possession of Island No. 10 after its capture. On the organ- ization of the army into Corps the regiment was placed in the 1st Brigade, 1st Division of the 20th Corps. His first promotion was to the rank of Ma- jor, on the 18th of December, 1861 ; his commission was dated January 31, 1862. The 27th was at Fort Pillow, and was turned back from that point after the battle of Shiloh, and took part in the siege of Corinth. While before Corinth he received his commission as Lieutenant-Colonel, dated April 24, 1862; his promotion running back to the 16th of the same month. From Corinth the regiment moved along the line of the Memphis & Charleston railroad, and in September, 1862, arrived at Nashville. It participated in the battle of Stone River while he was home on a short furlough, but he afterward assisted in driving the Confederate General Bragg out of Tennes- See, and was in the battles of Chickamaugua and Mission Ridge; and subse- quently went with his regiment to Knoxville, to which point it was despatched with the object of relieving Burnside. The 27th Illinois was transferred in 1863 to the 2d Division of the 4th Corps, of which it formed a part till the close of its service. He had been commissioned Colonel, January 1, 1863. While stationed at Cleveland, Tennessee, less than ninety days before the expiration of his three years' term of service, he resigned his commission ; reasons connected with his business and his family requiring his immediate presence in Illinois. The regiment which he had the honor to command, was considered one of the finest and best disciplined in the service. It did its full share of fighting, and bore a reputation for bravery and endurance unsurpassed by that of any other body of troops in the army. From the nine hundred men and upwards with which the regiment went into the war, it was reduced by hard fighting and exposure to one-third that number.

Since the war, he has been living at Miles' Station, principally engaged in farming. In 1868, he built at that place at a cost of twenty-three thousand dollars, a large steam mill, in which he still has an interest. He has three children ; Charlotte, wife of James Moffat; Samuel, who is engaged in the mercantile business at Brighton ; and Frank, who is still living at home. Col. Miles is a man so well known in Macoupin county, that no mention need be made of his personal traits of character. Nature gave him an energetic dis- position, and he has been prompt to lay hold of the opportunities which have come to him through life. His business relations have never been tainted by a suspicion of dishonesty, and his character as a man and a citizen stands above reproach. He is a member of the Methodist church. He was con- nected with the whig party till its dissolution and the formation of the re- publican party, when he became a republican. He has carried to the sup- port of the political principles in which he is a believer, the same earnest- ness and decision that have marked his opinions on all other subjects.

H. C. CLARK.

MR. CLARK is one of the substantial farmers of Brighton township. He is a native of Kentucky, and was born in Greene county, of that state, De- cember 27th, 1826. His ancestors had come to Kentucky from Virginia. His grandfather, William Clark, was a Virginian, and on his removal to .

Kentucky was one of the earliest pioneers of that state. He first settled in Barren county. The name of Mr. Clark's father was Howard Clark, and his mother's name before she was married was Eliza J. Wilson ; her father was a Virginian who served under Gen. Washington fourteen years, first in the wars against the Indians and then in the war of the Revolution, when the thirteen colonies gained their independence from Great Britain.

The subject of this sketch was the second of a family of six children, com- posed of five boys and one girl. While they resided in Kentucky, the home of the family was in Logan, Greene and Barren counties. In 1831 they left Kentucky for Illinois, and first settled at Edwardsville. While living there his father volunteered and took part in the Black Hawk war. About the year 1836 his father bought and entered some land in Jersey county (at that time still a part of Greene) about two miles west of Brighton. Mr. Clark was about five years of age when he came to Illinois, and about ten when the family moved to Jersey county, where he was principally raised. The schools in that neighborhood were of a fair character, and he enjoyed the advantages of a good common school education. After he was married he also attended a commercial college in St. Louis. He became twenty-one years old during the Mexican war, and toward the close of the war went to St. Louis, with the purpose of enlisting, in the service. Being unable to get in as a soldier he enlisted as a teamster, and in that capacity went from Jef- ferson barracks to Fort Leavenworth and thence to Fort Kearney, on a government expedition, to establish forts for the protection of overland emi- gration to Oregon. The country which the expedition traveled was then known as the " far west," and had never been traversed except by some few adventurers. After remaining in the government service five months and a half, he returned to Illinois.

This expedition only gave him a taste for further adventure, and in the spring of 1849 he joined one of the first companies to cross the plains for California, where gold had been discovered the previous year. He left Brighton on the 27th of March. The company was composed of fifteen wagons drawn by ox teams, and Capt. Elan Eldred, of Carrollton, was the commander. Mr. Clark bought and fitted out a team in partnership with William Jones, now of Brighton township, and William H. Loveland, now of Golden City, Colorado, and recent democratic candidate for governor of that state. The train was made up of farmers and men used to traveling and handling cat- tle, made good time in crossing the plains and mountains, and got into Cali- fornia among the very first arrivals-on the 18th of August, 1849. He was employed in mining over two years, chiefly near what is now Nevada City. He was moderately successful, and had abundant opportunity to experience some of the incidents and adventures which marked life in California during the times of the " forty-niners." He came back to Illinois in the fall of 1851. He bought a piece of land consisting of 185 acres in section 5, Brighton township, and began its improvement. December 9, 1852, he married Eliza L. Shaw, who was born near Zanesville, in Muskingum county, Ohio. She was on a visit to her aunt, Mrs. Herman Griggs, of Brighton, at the time of her marriage. He continued to live on section 5 till the spring of 1859, and then moved to his present residence, just north of and adjoin- ing the corporate limits of Brighton. He here bought eighty acres and planted a nursery, which for a year he carried on in partnership with Dr. B. F. Johnson, now deceased, and afterward for nine years by himself. The business was conducted on quite an extensive scale, and large quantities of trees were sold through Greene, Jersey, Madison and Macoupin counties, and also in Missouri. In 1864 he enlisted for the hundred days' service, and was sergeant of company E, 133d Illinois regiment, and commanded by Col. Phillips. During his service he was principally on garrison duty at Rock Island. He took a trip to California in 1876, and in that now great and prosperous state, overlooked the scenes of his early gold mining days, traveling in a spring wagon more than fifteen hundred miles over various por- tions of the state. He has had four children. The oldest daughter, Clara F., is now the wife of T. A. Jones, of Brighton ; Leonora and Henry Clinton. live at home ; the third child, Howard Colburn, died in 1865, when about five years old. He was originally a whig, and voted for Gen. Taylor in 1848 ; he has been connected with the republican party from its first organization. He was the first assessor of Brighton township after the adoption of town- ship organization, being elected in 1871, and holding the office for six years. He seems to have a natural taste for travel and adventure, and has made several long trips, partly for business and partly for pleasure. In 1874 he went to New Orleans with 1615 barrels of apples, which he disposed of in that city and in Galveston, Texas. He is known as a good citizen and an enterprising man.

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MAPLE MOUND, THE STOCK FARM & RESIDENCE OF JOHN KELSEY, SEC 3 OF BRIGHTON TP., MACOUPIN CO., ILL.

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HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS

John Relser

MUM ENTOER

MRS. JOHN KELSEY.

JOHN KELSEY, one of the largest farmers of Macoupin county, is a native of Yorkshire, England. His birth-place was sixteen miles from Doncaster, and about twenty from Hull, the nearest seaport town. His grandfather was a farmer. His father, whose name was also John Kelsey, learned the trade of a harness maker and saddler, and for a time carried it on at Epworth, England, but afterward went to farming. Mr. Kelsey was the youngest of four children, and was born January 12, 1824. The first ten years of his life were spent in England, and in the summer of 1834 the whole family emigrated to America, making the voyage from Hull to New York in a sailing vessel. From New York the family came by the Erie canal through New York State, and then across to the Ohio river, which they descended to its mouth, and then up the Mississippi to Alton, where they arrived August 20, 1834. Shortly afterward his father went to Edwards- ville, then the location of the land-office, and entered a hundred and sixty acres of land on the northwest branch of Wood river, about three miles east from Monticello, in Madison county. A cabin was built and the family settled on this tract in the fall of 1834. At that time the country presented a widely different appearance from the present. The settlements were con- fined to the edges of the timber. In the immediate vicinity of their settle- ment schools had not yet been established, and there were few advantages in the way of getting an education. For parts of two winters Mr. Kelsey went to school on Smooth prairie, about two miles from the present town of Fosterburg, in Madison county. His father was a hard-working and indus- trious man, and Mr. Kelsey was early initiated into the full meaning of the old precept that man should "eat his bread in the sweat of his face." He was accustomed to labor from boyhood, and learned those habits of indus- try and self-reliance which were of much service to him in after life. On growing up he showed the business capacity and judgment which have since been prominent traits of his character.

In the year 1842, when eighteen years of age, he began improving a tract of a hundred and ninety-six acres of wild land which his father had pur- chased for three dollars an acre in section three of township seven, range nine, Macoupin county. His piece of land forms the part of his present farm, on which stands the house and other improvements. He still had his home with his father in Madison county, and while improving the Macoupin county farm kept bachelor's quarters. The older children had married and left home, and his brother, next older than himself, died shortly after Mr. Kelsey began improving the farm in Brighton township. From 1842 Mr. Kelsey was mostly engaged in work on this farm to which his father, having sold the Madison county farm, removed in June, 1854. His father

died there on the 6th of December, 1874, nearly eighty-two years of age. He was a man of considerable energy and industry, honest in his dealings with his neighbors, and had many excellent traits of character. Mr. Kelsey's marriage occurred on the 24th of December, 1863, to Sarah Evans. She was born in Brighton township, a mile and a half southwest of Mr. Kelsey's present residence. Her father was John Evans, and her mother, whose maiden name was Mercy H. Loveland, was born in Rhode Island, May 23d, 1824.

Mr. Kelsey is one of the large farmers of the county, and is the owner of nine hundred and thirty-two acres of land, which, with the exception of sixty-five acres, lies in one body in the northern part of Brighton and the southern part of Shipman township. His farm is finely improved, has a large and commodious residence and excellent buildings. A full page illus- tration may be found elsewhere. It has good hedges and orchards, and all the requirements and conveniences of a first-class farm. There are also three tenant houses on the premises. Most of this large farm he carried on until within two or three years; he has since rented out the greater portion, and has lived a life of greater ease and leisure. He and his father were associated together in financial affairs till the latter's death, and it was largely through Mr. Kelsey's business judgment and sagacity that their joint property was accumulated. With the exception of the one hundred and ninety-six acres which composed the original tract, he has purchased this large and valuable farm from the results of his own labor, industry and business management. Mr. and Mrs. Kelsey have been the parents of six children; Mercy, May, Mary Alice, John H. and James R. who are living, and Nellie Atkinson and Leroy who are deceased. Nellie Atkinson was a twin to John H. and died December 1st, 1874, at the age of two years and eight months. Leroy, the next to the youngest child, died on the 4th of April, 1876, at the age of seven months and sixteen days.

In his political principles Mr. Kelsey was first a member of the whig party. His father, on coming to this country, became a whig, and Mr. Kelsey followed in his footsteps, casting his first vote for President, for that gallant son of Kentucky and champion of whig principles, Henry Clay, in the exciting campaign of 1844. Afterward, however, he supported the democratic organization, and on general elections has voted for its can- didates. He is a man of broad and liberal spirit, is not a strict party man, and in county and township elections has felt himself free to support the best man for office irrespective of his political sympathies.

In presenting a sketch of Mr. Kelsey's history to the readers of this work, we can speak of a man who stands in the front rank of the farmers of Ma-

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HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

coupin county. Like many men who are now recognized as among the best citizens of the state he is of foreign birth, and his career furnishes an excel- lent illustration of what may be accomplished by those who come to America from other countries. The broad acres of this free land are open to every man alike, native or foreign born, and furnish an equal opportunity to men of all classes for building up fame and fortune. Although born in England Mr. Kelsey is essentially an American in his training and his character. Coming to Illinois when only ten years of age and settling in a country which was rapidly developing from a wilderness into as fine an agricultural region as the sun ever shone upon, he imbibed the American ideas of pro- gress and enterprise which have since formed conspicuous elements in his character. These combined with that vigor and sturdy perseverance which belongs in a marked degree to Englishmen have been the main factors in his success. He began life with few advantages except those which are within the reach of all, and his history is well worthy to be handed down to the rising generation as an instance of what can be accomplished by a farmer on the fertile and generous soil of the great State of Illinois. Personally Mr. Kelsey is a man who stands well in the community as a good neighbor, an honorable business man, and an enterprising citizen. While he has ac- cumulated wealth he has not clung to his means with a close and avaricious disposition, but, on the contrary, is a man of liberal frame of mind, generous in his expenditures for the support of his family and the education of his children, desirous of bringing his farm up to the highest state of culture and improvement, and never falling behind in any work of public spirit and enterprise. The guest under his roof meets with a hospitality which savors of the olden time, in dispensing which he is ably assisted by Mrs. Kelsey, a lady of more than ordinary worth and accomplishments. He has never been ambitious to shine in the field of politics or to occupy public office. His business plans have occupied his attention through life, and he has only been anxious to excel as an enterprising farmer and a good citizen. As a man of personal honor and integrity no one stands higher in the commu- nity. He belongs to that class of whom it may be said "His word is as good as his bond," and promptness in meeting his just obligations and ren- dering to every man his honest due, has been characteristic of him through- out his business career. He is an honored member of the Masonic order, and is connected with Hibbard Lodge at Brighton, and with the Royal Arch Chapter at Alton.

WILLIAM C. MERRILL.

THE history of the Merrill family is traced back to one Major Merle, who was an officer in the French army under the reign of Louis XIV. He was a Protestant, and when the persecution of the Hugenots began he fled to England, and obtained in the British army a position similar to the one he had held in France. While in command of a small force in one of the towns on the coast of Ireland, a riot broke out which he was prompt in quelling, and so saved the town, which had been set on fire. This act brought him to the favorable notice of the Crown, and he was knighted. The spell- ing of the name became changed to Merrill, an orthography which some branches of the family still maintain. Three brothers, named Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Merrill, descended from the Major Merle above-mentioned, formed part of the original colony which founded Hartford, Connecticut, and the different families of " Merrill " and " Merrell " in this country are readily traceable back to this old stock.

Mr. Merrill's father, whose name was Enoch Merrill, was born in New Hampshire ; married Betsy Bean, and in 1820, directly after his marriage, settled near Chateaugay lake, in Franklin county, New York. That coun- try was then a wilderness, and only one other family had ventured to make a settlement within a distance of several miles. Mr. Merrill was born in Bel- mont, Franklin county, New York, May 4th, 1828. His birth-place was the first log house which his father built after coming to the state. The district schools which he attended in boyhood were well conducted, and have turned out men who subsequently made their mark in life. The first school-house in which he went to school was a log building, but this a few years afterward was supplanted by a neat and comfortable frame structure. When eighteen he became a student for a year at an academy at Malone, the county-seat, twelve miles distant from his home. In this academy, Vice-President Wheeler, who is a native of Malone, received the greater part of his educa- tion. After leaving the academy Mr. Merrill taught school for three win- ters in Franklin county, and afterward two terms in Jefferson county. He came to the determination that he could better his condition by going away

from home, and in March, 1852, then about twenty-four years of age, he set out for California.

He sailed from New York in the old ship " Pioneer." The great emigra- tion then going to California caused a serious lack of adequate transporta- tion facilities over the Isthmus of Panama, the usual route, and to avoid this delay, the voyage was made around through the Straits of Magellan. This voyage usually required three months, but twice that time elapsed before the vessel reached its destination. At Rio Janiero, where a stop of twelve days was made, the yellow fever was raging. The machinery was in bad condition for so long a voyage, and the ship was compelled to put in at several ports on the Pacific coast for coal and repairs. At Tallchuauna, on the coast of Chili, the heaviest storm ever known on the Pacific coast, drove the vessel across a reef of rocks and very nearly brought the voyage to an untimely end. Her injuries affected the vessel to such an extent that con- stant pumping was required to keep the water out of the hold. A stop of several days was made at Valparaiso in the hope of getting coal, but being disappointed there they proceeded to a smaller port farther up the coast, where they were more successful. At Panama a serious trouble occurred with the crew, who were unwilling to continue the voyage on account of the unseaworthiness of the ship. Two hundred miles south of San Francisco the coal gave out, the pumps stopped in consequence, and the water gained on them so rapidly that the captain was obliged to run the vessel ashore to keep her from sinking. The passengers were fortunately carried off in safety by another steamer. It was in the fall of 1852 that he reached San Francisco. During the three years that he was in California he was engaged mostly in mining, the greater part of the time in Calaveras county, and for a while in Jackson county. Murphy's camp, in Calaveras county, where he spent a year and a half, was twelve miles from the celebrated grove of big trees which have made California famous. This grove Mr. Merrill was accustomed to visit frequently, and was present while the first big tree, thirty feet in diameter, afterward exhibited in New York, was cut down, the task requiring the labor of four men for twenty-two days. He was moderately successful, and underwent much the same experiences as were common in the early gold mining days of California.

He reached his native county on his return in the spring of 1855. His father had died about a year previous. During the summer, after coming back, he had the management of the old farm, and the succeeding winter taught school in the town of Burke, in the same school-house in which he first began his experience as a teacher at the age of eighteen. In the spring of 1856 he visited Iowa, having purchased some land at Irving, in that state, and the latter part of June of the same year came to Brighton, where he had relatives living. The winter of 1856-7 was spent in Iowa, where he taught school and sold his land, and the next spring returned to Brighton. In partnership with T. S. Bean he opened the first grocery store ever estab- lished in Brighton, afterward purchased a stock of drugs and medicines, and thus also started the first drug-store. He was appointed deputy post-master under Taylor G. Chase, and on the latter's resignation was made post-master, and held the office until after the inauguration of Lincoln. In 1859 he bought the interest of A. H. Loveland (subsequently the founder of Golden City, Colorado, and a prominent citizen of that state), and became a partner of J. R. Crandall, in the firm of Crandall & Merrill. From 1860 to 1861 he carried on business himself, and the latter year the present firm of Merrill & Chase was established. Of late years the firm has confined its business exclusively to dry-goods, boots and shoes, hats, caps, clothing and notions, and it occupies a prominent building, carries an extensive stock, and does a large business.

In August, 1858, he was married to Harriet Augusta Smith, who was born in Franklin county, New York, in the town of Chateaugay, adjoining Bel- mont, near Mr. Merrill's birth-place. They have three children living, Herbert S., Almeda, and Frank Merrill. He has always been a democrat in politics. His time, however, has been so taken up with business that he has had little opportunity for active participation in political movements. He was a member of the first board of trustees of Brighton, after the incorporation of the town. He was one of the early members of Hibbard Masonic Lodge, joining it in 1857, the first year of its organization. As an honorable and active business man, an enterprising and intelligent citizen, and a gentle- man of genial and social manners, he is one of the representative men of the south-western part of Macoupin county. He was the third of seven children, and has two brothers and four sisters. His oldest brother, B. S. Merrill, lives in Oswego county, New York ; L. P. Merrill, his youngest brother, is a resident of Malone; and two sisters, Mrs. William Weed and Mrs. V. Huntley, reside in Belmont. A sister, Mrs. W. W. Walsworth, lives in Chicago, and the remaining sister is Mrs. T. S. Bean, of Brighton.

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History of Macoupin County, Illinois, Part 53

Author: Brink, McDonough & Co. Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Number of Pages: 440

Author: Brink, McDonough & Co.
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 440